1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to multimedia content management, and, more specifically, to updating information fields that are included in multimedia content that has been time-shifted.
2. Description of the Related Art
Supplemental Information
Many multimedia content providers (e.g., cable companies, studios, or broadcasters) provide supplementary information (e.g., commercials, advertisements, or horizontally scrolling or crawling sports scores or stock quotes) to their viewers in addition to a primary multimedia-content feed (e.g., video). These supplementary information (SI) feeds are provided in a number of different ways.
In some cases, information is converted to a graphical form and superimposed onto video during a production process (e.g., at a studio). In other cases, text is overlaid on the video in real time at a distribution point (e.g., a local cable headend) or the point of display (e.g., a set-top box or personal computer) via a local character generator, keying/compositing unit, or via a windowing process. In these cases, the supplementary information is spatially differentiated from the primary multimedia-content feed. In other words, there is a spatial location within the video image where the SI can found.
In other cases (e.g., commercials), supplementary information is inserted within the primary multimedia-content feed at specific intervals in time. In these cases, supplementary information is temporally differentiated from the primary multimedia-content feed.
Finally, multimedia content comes in all sorts of different packages and transports (e.g., an MPEG-2 program including a video packet identifier (PID) and multiple audio/data PIDs). A package or transport can include both a primary multimedia-content feed (e.g., carried in the video and primary audio PIDs of an MPEG-2 program) as well as logically differentiated SI feeds (e.g., carried in one or more of the data PIDs of an MPEG-2 program).
Time Sensitivity
Often, supplementary information is somewhat time sensitive. For example, on a sports channel whose primary multimedia-content feed is a playoff game, information may be scrolling across the bottom of the screen that provides, for example, quarter-hour updates on the scores of other games in the league, reports on sports injuries, or other time-sensitive events. Similarly, national networks typically provide regular time slots within their programs, within which local affiliate stations can insert local commercials. These commercials can sometimes be time sensitive (e.g., advertisements stating “one time only” or “call within the next 24 hours to receive your free bonus gift,” or local news program advertisements stating “full story at 11 PM”). Finally, packaged SI (e.g., poll results) provided in an intercast-type (e.g., vertical blanking interval (VBI) feed within a broadcast channel) can also be time sensitive.
However, real-time and/or time-sensitive supplemental information can become stale and/or irrelevant when a program (e.g., a primary multimedia-content feed and its associated SI) is time-shifted for later playback. Time-shifting can occur during the multimedia content distribution process (e.g., the 3-hour delay that a West Coast airing of a prime-time program sometimes receives relative to the program's East Coast airing time), but increasingly, the growing popularity and use of digital video recorders (DVRs) by consumers means that, more and more, programs are delayed by a PC or STB in a consumer's home by some indeterminate amount of time before they are played back. When a recorded program is finally viewed, the associated supplemental information can be stale or irrelevant, depending on how long it has been since the program was recorded.